Waratahs hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau shows off his comedic side in the new viral marketing video © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: Kurtley Beale | Israel Dagg | Cory Jane | Drew Mitchell | Ma'a Nonu | Tatafu Polota-Nau | Benn Robinson

Tournaments/Tours: Super Rugby

Teams: New South Wales Waratahs | New Zealand | Waratahs

A new bout of viral warfare has broken out in the southern hemisphere as the Waratahs responded to the All Blacks' latest YouTube video with their own parody version.

In the latest in a growing list of online videos featuring players executing too-good-to-be-true skills at training, All Blacks Cory Jane, Israel Dagg and Ma'a Nonu are back to promote Sky New Zealand's Rugby Channel with a "summer edition" of their original skills school video.

This time they kick balls into barbeques, pass watermelons into targets and catch sausages in a sandwich without looking as they hang out in the backyard ahead of the Super Rugby season.

When the first skills school video came out last year, the Brumbies posted their own version without the assistance of special effects as a riposte. This time it's the Waratahs' turn to humiliate themselves in an effort to boost membership numbers as Kurtley Beale, Drew Mitchell and Benn Robinson (with a little help from Tatafu Polota-Nau) try in vain to copy their Kiwi counterparts.

Robinson's over the top sausage-catching finale nearly ended in disaster as his team-mates fired tomato sauce directly down his throat, making for an uncomfortable moment for the big forward.

The American NFL was the first brand to use the videos as a marketing tool, while Roger Federer's William Tell-style clip is perhaps the most famous. Like his rugby countrymen, Australian tennis player Pat Rafter has his own reply to Federer's effort which also goes wrong, perhaps giving the world an insight into the sarcastic Aussie humour.